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Version 2.2.0 of the Parrot virtual machine arrives

The Parrot Foundation developers have announced the release of version 2.2.0 of the Parrot virtual machine, code named "Like Clockwork", on which the Rakudo implementation of Perl 6 will run. Perl 6, unlike Perl 5, keeps the compiler and runtime separate and Parrot is being developed as the runtime virtual machine for Perl 6 compiled code. Parrot is not limited to Perl 6 though; it has support for other dynamic languages, including PHP, Python and Ruby, at various stages of completion.

The latest Parrot update features several core changes, including a fixes to non-randomness in the random number generation (RNG) fixes and the removal of "much dead code" and legacy operations. The developers also note that most internal memory allocations now use the garbage collector (GC). Other changes include the restoration of Sun cc and Intel icc support, and the compiler invocation no longer running through a Perl script.